Jen came over yesterday morning, and we took the mares out for a hack. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but there's a section of bridleway between the two villages where we have to ride past a field with two horses in it. This has never been a problem before, but the last time Jen and I took this route the big black bastard horse in there came charging over, bit Beatrice over the fence and then had a go at Pepsi who screamed bloody murder at him. We rode past easily enough, Pepsi just yelled and kicked around a bit.

Anyways, I'm not averse to sitting a few bucks so we figured we'd take the route again - it makes rides very short, otherwise. And plus we thought we knew what to expect (no qualms about smacking aforementioned bastard horse round the head if he went for our girls again). But as we approached the field and the other horses came over to the fence, Pepsi went freakin' mental. I have never heard a horse roar before, not in real life. I thought it was only a stallion noise. But she bellowed at this black horse, lashed out with forelegs, span and kicked with hinds, tried to run back the way we'd come ... this went on for a while. She just radiated fury. I'm used to her being silly and mare-ish and squealing, but I've never known her to be so angry.

In the end I made the decision that it was just going to be too dangerous, and that we would have to turn back. Jen had the rather lovely idea that Pepsi was trying to protect me - she wanted to teach the horse what for, but also get out of there with me still safely on her back - and I would like to believe that theory. But this is Pepsi. And I doubt it. :P

So we took the horses back, then went and had pub lunch. Discovered that the pub's jukebox has AWESOME MUSIC on it, so we spent the afternoon playing Nightwish, Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper etc. Good times!

glenatron came down last night, and this morning we took the mares out again. Personally I'm a bit bored of riding round the village, but I can't go further because Beatrice isn't really meant for more then a short, gentle plod these days and Pepsi ... well, Pepsi's 27. And she's got me on her back. So I suggested to Ben that we take the bridleway at the edge of the village - it would have to be a walk down, stop half-way, turn and come back kinda thing ... but it's a nice track and it's off-road and it's somewhere different.

Except there was a local horse show on, so we had to ride alongside the lorry park and the collecting rings to get there. XD Both horses were actually very good - Pepsi was a bit bouncy, but settled down once we got onto the bridleway. But when we turned for home? LOL. Pepsi bronced so high I lost my stirrups and inexplicably hurt my ankle while trying to stay on board. Beatrice decided that what Ben really wanted was to have his arms pulled out their sockets. And so that's how we went home: Pepsi bucking every few strides, and Beatrice pretending to be a steamtrain. Mares...

Riding along the village green.

I kept having to trot Pepsi ahead so that I could get a side-view photo of them - Pepsi learnt that all she has to do is trot really fast, then stop dead and stuff her face with grass while I mess around with my camera.

XD Love it. Ben's grin and Beatrice's expression are love.

The first part of the bridleway.

It's just a nice ride! If you follow the entire bridleway you end up going over two fly-overs, too, which is pretty cool - although the second one is exceedingly narrow and arched and the wind makes the wire sides ping, so you need a fairly good horse to cross it...

This is where we stopped and turned back. There are no more photos of this section of bridleway as I was concentrating mostly on not falling off my pony.

Riding back past the horse lorries. Pepsi has a giant mane!

Pepsi was checking out the show ponies - eye candy for mares, there! :P

Back on the village green. We survived!

It was really cool to be able to ride out with Ben. I feel bad for it being something of a stressfull ride for him, but it honestly never even crossed my mind that Bea would end up being such a numpty. XD Next time he says "hm, maybe we should ride somewhere else?", I will listen to him. My sense of what is and what isn't a stupid thing to do on horseback has been broken for some time.